Massively Multiplayer Online Games - Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation - page 7

A Change of Speed
One of the biggest changes that benefited the world of MMOs is the speed at
which computers connect to the Internet. As more and more people found
getting access to information and email an important everyday task, this led
telecom companies to invest large sums of money to provide faster Internet
connections. The first big jump was the ability to move to a technology called
ISDN, which used two lines connected at the same time. The users still had to
pay per minute charges for Internet access on two lines, which wasn t cost-

effective for the home user because telecom companies were starting to offer free
weekend calls. The success of ISDN in the home environment was limited and
the take up was mainly in businesses.

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The advent of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) changed the gaming
landscape. Unlike dial-up, ASDL allowed you to still use the telephone line while
using the Internet. ADSL is commonly known as broadband and provided a
massive leap forward in terms of data transfer speeds. Today, the speed of ADSL
varies in cost and in features, but it is relatively cheap to get a low-speed ASDL,
which is about 10 times the speed of dial-up.

Note

ADSL is also known as DSL in some countries.

As more and more people are using the Internet to watch TV and play online
games, the technology will not be standing still. ADSL

is already being used in
some countries and can provide speeds up to 24Mbps; the fiber technology
(using light sent down through flexible glass tubes) allows speeds up to
100Mbps. This will be very important for the future of MMOs as they become
more complex and contain a larger number of players.

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World of Warcraft (WOW)
There are many MMOs available today for the game player to choose from,
including those based on TV, movies, and comics as well as the traditional
fantasy-based games. The MMO that took the EverQuest crown for the largest
number of subscribers was a game called WOW (World of Warcraft), based on a
game called Warcraft, which originally was an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game.